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Is it the end of Aptera Motors?
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Written on: 01 December 2010 [20:47]
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ecoadmin
Administrator
Topic creator
registered since: 20.07.2007
Posts: 585
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Aptera Motors did not win the XPRIZE. For many Aptera enthusiasts this means the end for the young and innovative company. And they might be soon confirmed in their beliefs as it has become ver quiet around Aptera Motors more recently. A major reason which has fueled the concerns is that the company was speculating to win the XPRIZE which would have allowed them to focus on a bigger scale production. Much time and money has been put into making the 2e and 2h a better car and ready for mass production. Now that he car is ready and the XPRIZE not won, things look grim. So how could this have been avoided? In my opinion the Aptera team was too optimistic about the design of the car. Exotic looking cars generally serve a niche market. A production on a smaller scale and with a higher end price would have been the better option. But that is just what my gut feeling says...What do you think? Twike 890
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Written on: 12 December 2010 [04:43]
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iamian
 
registered since: 23.02.2009
Posts: 110
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I agree ... Aptera bought too much of their own hype ... and greatly underestimated the competition ... they had no exclusive on aerodynamics , and the current version of the Aptera at ~800+ kg is not all that light even compared to other small compact cars. I personally think ... the Biggest mistake Aptera made was a few years ago now ... They had bought , equipped, setup, a small scale factory to produce a few hundred Aptera's a year ... They even built a few off the line for testing. Then after all that investment , setup, etc ... they scrapped the whole 1st factory ... they borrowed money up to their eye balls in order to setup Factory attempt #2, which was designed to be larger scale ... produce more Aptera's per year ... etc. Now the line they feed people was that the larger scale production would bring down costs per each individual Aptera made... and I have no doubt it would have. But considering that they were already behind schedule and had broken delivery date promises to customers by the time the #1 Factory was up and running ... I think the change of gears to the larger plant... was too much ... it further delayed too much ... and the economy tanked ... and then they had some humble pie served to them at the X-Prize. They aren't 100% dead yet ... but they are in sad shape. I still think the best thing they could have done ... was to keep pushing ahead with the small scale production Factory #1 ... refine the stuff from the first test models ... and start filling deliveries ... even if the rate of production was tiny, and only a few per year ... they should have pushed ahead with that ... and then latter is demand justified it, come back and try to up-size production , and down size costs. As it is now ... they are still limping along on life support ... but it doesn't look good ... and I have my doubts they have learned their lesson yet. RE & Efficiency enthusiast
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